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One of Dickens Famous works was Oliver Twist, Oliver ends up in
the workhouse at one point in the book. South Shields erected a row
of cottage homes at Cleadon, about three miles from the main
workhouse. The homes provided accommodation for pauper children in
"family" groups of fifteen to twenty children, each looked after by
a house-mother of father. There were three pairs of boys' cottages
(named Ivy, Sycamore, Snowdrop, Hawthorn, Daisy and Laburnum) and
three pairs of girls' cottages (named Pansy, Violet, Rose,
Primrose, Maple, and Oak). A staff/adminstrative building was
placed between the boys' and girls' homes which were laid out along
one side of a "street".
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Only one cottage remains, formerly Woodbine Cottage, a single
house at the entrance to the homes. This appears to be smaller than
the other children's homes so is possibly a later addition, perhaps
a receiving home for new arrivals
The remaining cottage is part of Oakfield school, on the front
of the cottage there is a blue plaque with two year dates at the
base =ABCD - 19EF, the information has been given so that the dates
can be found by other means if you so wish
calculate the next point N 54 57.(506-FFF) W 001
23.(905+(B-A)(E+F)) Dickens stayed in Cleadon whilst visiting
friends who lived in Cleadon Hall at the establishment over the
road from this location, above the door there is the date the pub
was built GH9I.
Continue on down the road towards Boldon, stop at Romanos
restaurant, accross the road is Cleadon Hall recently converted to
flats , add the numers of flats a,b & c together to give a
three digit number, the middle digit =J
most of the grounds of the Hall where donated to the local
authority and are used for recreational purposes, within those
grounds is a folly At N 54 57.A(H-A)C W 001 2I.GDJ
on the folly is a plaque, for the final cache find the
plaque
N 54 5E.(years of celebration)-((D-(B-G))(I-J)(E-A))
W 001 2i.(years of celebration divided by
(D-(H-J)))-((C)(B-F)(E-G))
